A series of training workshops on improving the use of the Somali language in the media was conducted Radio Ergo in Mogadishu, Garowe and Hargeisa.
The workshops, organized in collaboration with local partners, attracted over 150 journalists including 51 women from local radio, TV, print media and online news portals.
The training focused on four main topics: improving journalists’ skill in writing the Somali language, spelling and correctness of sentence construction; problems arising from incorrect use of language by radio and TV stations; enhancing the standards of Somali language used by the media; and incorrect translation and the impact on the language.
Nimo Bashe Abdi, one the female participants, said she learnt a lot of things she didn’t know before about use of the language, but the time was short. She requested Radio Ergo to hold more similar training workshops in the future.
The workshops were held in Mogadishu on 28-29 March attended by 45 journalists; Galkayo on 30 March for 28 journalists; Garowe on 2 April for 40 journalists; and Hargeisa on 5 April 5 for 40 journalists.
Somaliland’s assistant minister of information Shukri Harirad addressed the Hargeisa event and spoke about the importance of journalists having an in-depth knowledge of their mother tongue.
Puntland’s minister of information Abdiweli Hirsi Abdulle in Garowe praised Radio Ergo’s effort to improve the skills and knowledge of Somali journalists in the country.
Media Association of Puntland chairman Faysal Khalif Barre, who co-facilitated the workshop in Garowe, encouraged journalists to apply their newly gained skills in the media. In Mogadishu, Ismail Sheikh Khalif, representing the media owners association, Network 2013, called on journalists to take skills and knowledge away with them and use them in their daily work.
The workshops followed an earlier one-day event held in Nairobi in February marking International Mother Language day, organized jointly by Radio Ergo and the Somali Diaspora Press Club.
